SOUND ON SOUND
Michael Anthony plays Orpheus in the underworld of home keyboards in an attempt to discover what level of technology lies beneath their distinctly untrendy exteriors.
With their background in home keyboards and high-quality electric pianos, it came as something of a surprise that Technics should enter the mainstream synth market with a physical modelling instrument. SOS attended the world preview.
We've had the analogue synth revival; now it's the turn of the analogue sequencer! Gordon Reid checks out Analogue Systems' brand-new 16-step analogue sequencer and explains just why you might want such an apparently obsolete device.
Paul White turns up the volume, and discovers that Spirit's PowerStation delivers both quality and quantity.
Are the 16-bit capabilities of your AV Macintosh languishing unused for want of a decent (and Cheap) 16-bit sample editor? SoundEdit 16 could be your salvation. Mike Collins checks it out...
Could this be the ultimate one-box solution to your sound generation needs? Kevin Earley finds out.
Derek Johnson looks at a cost-effective way of cutting down the noise in your studio.
Panicos Georghiades checks out Turtle Beach's most cost-effective PC sound card yet.
Just the thing to send Paul White for Christmas: an Omni Present!
Eventually, pretty much everyone tries to recreate that old vintage valve guitar sound by using an old vintage valve, but Zoom have teamed tube technology with a powerful digital effects DSP to combine the best of old and new. Paul White finds out if the marriage works.
A synth editor program for your computer can expand your synthesis horizons and encourage you to discard those presets in favour of original creations. But what if you have more than one synth — surely it's going to cost a fortune buy an editor for each? Not necessarily, as Paul Nagle finds out.
Once upon a time an Emulator was all eights: 8-bit, 8-voice, 8-outs, but that was a decade ago. Ten years on and the latest Emulator has more of the 128 about it: 128 voices, up to 128Mb of RAM. Paul Wiffen finds out if everything else about the EIV is 16 times as good.
Paul White is given an exclusive preview of a new technology that will revolutionise music making — and this time, it really will!
At a time when a modular synth could cost as much as an average house, Roland's System 100M was an affordable dream. Chris Carter gets patched in...
Derek Johnson looks at a book from John Borwick exploring Sound Recording Practice.
The would-be samplist now has a wide range of samplers to choose from in the medium to high price ranges, but the sub-£800 zone has been looking decidedly bare — until now. Derek Johnson checks out the sampler that plugs the gap...
Paul White brings back from NAMM exclusive news from Roland's new secret weapon in the physical modelling wars.
A new bargain capacitor mic threatens to stop the drain of hard currency into the coffers of ailing ex-Eastern Bloc states. Paul White checks out the American-made CR3A.